The first live-action Transformers movie directed by someone other than Michael Bay is, not coincidentally, the first live-action Transformers movie that’s any good. Because we live in an unjust world, 2018’s Bumblebee was also the lowest-grossing Transformers film up to that point by some considerable margin.
As someone who grew up in the 1980s with the original Transformers toys and cartoon, I was never particularly a fan of how Bay handled the property when he latched onto it starting in 2007. Like everything the director touches, his five stabs at the franchise were all big, loud, overlong, and astoundingly dumb. None of them much resembled anything I could recognize as The Transformers from my youth. Bumblebee, on the other hand, is just about everything I personally wanted a Transformers movie to be. Sadly, general audiences didn’t agree, or at least didn’t care enough to give it a shot.
| Title: | Bumblebee |
| Year of Release: | 2018 |
| Director: | Travis Knight |
| Watched On: | 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray |
| Also Available On: | Blu-ray Paramount+ Various VOD rental and purchase platforms |
Lest I sound too pessimistic, keep in mind that Bumblebee wasn’t exactly a failure. The movie grossed enough money at the theatrical box office to turn a profit – just less of one than any of the prior Transformers entries, and less than the studio expected or wanted. It didn’t flop; it underperformed. But in Hollywood, that’s nearly as bad.
When Michael Bay finally exited the franchise, the studio and producers decided to retool a little bit. Rather than another direct sequel, the next movie installment would be a solo adventure for popular character Bumblebee – one of the very few robots from the Bay films who was allowed a clearly-defined identity and personality. To put this together, the project was entrusted to Travis Knight, the CEO of stop-motion animation studio Laika, making his live-action directorial debut. A self-professed “G1” Transformers fan, Knight brought a lot more personal knowledge and investment to the property than Bay ever had. More importantly, he has much better storytelling instincts. He also knows how to direct an action scene with some sense of visual coherency, which is a skill Bay has never cared to learn.
Technically, Bumblebee is a prequel to the Bay films and its plot follows the continuity they established. The story opens on the war-torn planet of Cybertron, where heroic Autobot leader Optimum Prime (Peter Cullen) sends the scrappy yellow warrior called B-127 (initially voiced by Dylan O’Brien from the Maze Runner movies) on a secret mission as an advanced scout to Earth, in order to prepare for an Autobot evacuation to that primitive world. Unfortunately, he’s followed there by a small squad of evil Decepticons, who damage his vocal and memory circuits, and nearly kill him. When just about all seems lost, assistance comes from an unexpected source, in the form a teenage human girl named Charlie (Hailee Steinfeld).
With only a handful of robot characters for most of its length, Bumblebee is decidedly smaller in scale or scope than the prior Transformers movies, but it’s a lot more focused. The film does a very good job of developing its leads, both robot and human. In contrast to Bay’s obnoxiously juvenile antics, the humor is well-balanced and the story has a lot of genuine heart. Setting the story in 1987 also allows for plenty of entertaining pop-culture references and needle-drop soundtrack cues from the era in which the original Transformers began.
Knight hardly skimps on the slam-bang-boom action, either. The opening on Cybertron is a pretty epic sequence, and the action scenes regularly interspersed throughout the rest of the film deliver as much robotic mayhem as any fan could want. Moreover, it’s actually possible to follow what happens in them. The big set-pieces are all well-choreographed and -paced, with robots that look different enough from one another to tell them apart (i.e. not just all indistinguishable piles of gray scrap metal). Knight uses about 1/50th the number of cuts per scene than Bay does, and isn’t afraid to hold a shot for more than three seconds before hyperactively jumping to the next one.
Admittedly, a storyline involving John Cena as a dickish Army bro doesn’t really add much to the movie, beyond throwing in a traditional masculine action hero star for marketability. I’ve never been a fan of the dumb conceit Bay introduced to the franchise that the Autobots and Decepticons can transform into anything just by looking at it, and Bumblebee regrettably continues with that premise. I don’t recall the primary Decepticon enemies ever being named in the film itself. They’re credited as Shatter and Dropkick (not characters I remember from the G1 days), and I was a little shocked to learn that they’re voiced by Angela Bassett and Justin Theroux. Neither sounded recognizable to me, which makes me question the need to stunt-cast celebrity voice actors for them. This aspect of the film and these characters could’ve been fleshed-out better.
Minor quibbles aside, Bumblebee is great fun. As an old-school G1 fan, this is what I wish every Transformers movie could be. Frankly, I wish every live-action Transformers movie had been more like this one from the start.
The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray
Following its December 2018 theatrical run, Bumblebee was released to home video in April of 2019 on DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K Ultra HD. Disappointingly, despite a 3D theatrical run, no 3D edition was offered on Blu-ray, either in the United States or (to my knowledge) overseas. The copy I chose was the 4K UHD SteelBook sold at Best Buy.
The earlier Michael Bay Transformers entries were primarily shot in “scope” 2.35:1 widescreen, though Bay also threw some Variable Aspect Ratio nonsense into a few of them for IMAX theaters. Director Travis Knight chose instead to shoot Bumblebee entirely in a 1.85:1 ratio, presumably with IMAX in mind. On home video, all formats were transferred at “full-screen” 16:9, the difference for which is not significant enough to fret about.
The 4K Ultra HD is quite sharp, with plenty of detail and no grain to speak of. (A fully digital production, any grain added later would’ve been artificial anyway.) Colors are vividly rendered, and certain highlights pop nicely. Bumblebee’s eyes in particular are a piercing blue. However, at least on my projector, the HDR grade seems a little hot, and human facial complexions sometimes glow orange. Black levels also seem a slight bit elevated. That said, HDR is complicated, and I can’t rule out that my projector may just have trouble tone-mapping this disc.
The Dolby Atmos soundtrack is quite a powerhouse, with lots of huge explosions and deep, slamming bass that’ll rock your room. A track like this can be an eye-opener and remind you just how neutered most modern movies have gotten with limited dynamic range in their mixes. The surround and height channels are also used aggressively (an early scene lets the sound of buzzing bees fill every speaker you may have), and all the licensed 1980s songs sound great.
The 4K disc itself has no extras, just the movie. All bonus features are found on the accompanying Blu-ray disc. Those include some deleted scenes, outtakes, a 20-minute making-of piece, a few other much shorter featurettes, and a couple weird pieces of promotional fluff that appear to have been created for the web. The supplemental package is rather insubstantial overall.
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Note: All screenshots on this page were taken from the standard Blu-ray edition of the film and are used for illustration purposes only.
The Video File Blog 
The opening sequence for this is better than all the Bay movies combined. I’m hoping the Beast War movie gives me that feeling. Not to say I haven’t had fun with the Bay movies, but it really felt like the cartoon coming to life.
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There’s a shot of Optimus Prime leaping through the air while blasting Decepticons that’s the same famous pose as his epic introduction scene in the animated movie.
You can feel that the people making this movie really knew and loved Transformers. Unlike Bay, who just exploited the property as an excuse to do his own thing.
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Imagine if that was what audiences in 2007 would’ve seen as the first photo realistic depiction of Transformers? Grown men would’ve cried.
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This is my favorite film of the entire live action series; the first can be a lot of fun, but this one is much more enjoyable. This one felt like an actual Transformers movie and not a Mikey Bay movie with Transformers in it.
The SteelBook is excellent, and I’m glad I got it. I haven’t watched it in a while, but I think I might have to now…
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